The Rambo sequel impresses a real-life Special Forces explosives expert with its amazingly realistic bomb scene. Sylvester Stallone seemed to be done with the John Rambo character when a new film in the franchise was unexpectedly released in 2008. In the film, Stallone’s killing machine retreats to a life of peaceful isolation in the jungle when he is called into action to rescue a group of missionaries who have been kidnapped by a local military group, resulting in a massacre.
The Rambo franchise may not be known for its realism, but one scene in the 2008 film was believable enough in detail to impress a real-life expert. In Insider’s video, Chief EOD Technician Jay Lee breaks down a scene where Rambo is being chased through the jungle by soldiers and dogs and sets up a booby trap that causes a massive explosion.
How it was set up and how it was emplaced, totally legit. He had a Claymore. He put it on top of the Grand Slam bomb, huge British bomb. Claymores are used all over. They’re already wired. They’re pre-made to be set up as booby traps. That’s what they’re for. So he just had the trip wire, put something that he thought one of these people chasing him, idiots, would grab. There are 100% bomb-detection dogs, and in this clip, those dogs, I believe, are going for human detection. They’re going for sniffing out Rambo, not necessarily sniff out explosive hazards in the woods. And even if they were, those dogs are running full speed. That’s like essentially you trying to sniff a hot dog in the corner while sprinting down the hallway, like hyperventilating essentially. It’s never going to happen.
Would the blast wave be that extended? I mean, it was drawn out to have that effect. The explosive component in there is torpex. They added aluminum into the composition of that explosive to extend the blast. But with that being said, that’s like a nuclear blast wave that is just kind of continuing to go out. It would be really big and done. That blast wave would’ve killed a lesser man. Not John Rambo. The explosive component in there is torpex. It’s about 50% stronger than TNT. And that’s only the blast. Frag goes exponentially further than blast does. So yeah, he is definitely within that. This is probably the most realistic clip as far as how things function and how people think. Man, I might give “Rambo” an eight. He’s knocked two because of survival. That’s hokey at best, even for John Rambo.
Twenty years later, the star discovered he needed a hit and resurrected John Rambo for a new generation of moviegoers.
The idea that Rambo seeks a peaceful life but must once again unleash violence for a righteous cause was powerful enough for the surprise “Rambo 2008,” which earned $113 million at the box office on a budget of about $50 million. The film’s success not only brought back Stallone’s second biggest character in the franchise, but also convinced the star that there was an audience for ’80s-style carnage, prompting him to release the co-star The Expendables in 2010. return for 2019’s Last Blood, which was not a big success, leaving the franchise’s future in doubt.